Conducting Research Abroad: Positionality, Methodology, and Practice (Book project)

Call for chapter proposals for the collection Conducting Research Abroad: Positionality, Methodology and Practice to be submitted for publication by August 2007.

Deadline for chapter proposal (500-1000 words): March 7, 2007

Deadline for the completed manuscript (15-20 pp. including notes and works
cited) for accepted proposals: May 15, 2007.

Contact: Lise-Hélène Trouilloud (lvtrouilloud_at_csupomona.edu <mailto:lvtrouilloud_at_csupomona.edu> ) or Anjana Narayan (anarayan_at_csupomona.edu <mailto:anarayan_at_csupomona.edu> )

This edited collection presents an interdisciplinary effort to define the empirical, methodological and practical implications of conducting undergraduate or graduate research abroad. As its primary goal, this project sets out to analyze the procedures that are most predominant in current research, and to examine how these procedures encapsulate and project the imbalances (or biases) that characterize scholarly initiatives in the west.

The inequality of power relationships is often overlooked when conducting research abroad. When carrying out research studies overseas, researchers from some groups have the advantage of easy access to other groups, networks or organizations and access to specific knowledge that is influenced by dynamics like race, nationality, religion or gender. Furthermore, research students and scholars have shown a marked preference for "high theory" and the realm of the abstract over empirical work, a trend that further highlights intellectual colonization and knowledge hierarchies. The objective of this collection is to examine how knowledge is generated and then shared via frameworks that are accessible, as well as applicable, to both national and international target audiences.

With this focus, the book is a resourceful initiative that seeks to share multiple research methodologies and to promote theoretical, empirical and methodological cross-fertilization between different academic disciplines and practices. This collection seeks to draw insights from authors who specialize in diverse methods ranging from ethnography, archival research and oral histories, to quantitative data analysis and experiments used in social scientific and humanities research to extract key ideas and approaches that overlap or resonate in different areas of study.

The spectrum of issues that this collection aims to illuminates also includes bureaucratic considerations of obtaining visas, foreign ministry clearance, politics of IRB requirements such as 'informed consent'; logistical considerations such as time for travel, rhythm of the local place, language and religious barriers and access to technology; finally collaborative considerations such as building networks and research collaborations, obtaining research funding, and - most importantly - developing potential avenues to use results of the research for the benefit of the study participants and their families and communities.

We seek contributors in fields such as history, anthropology, sociology, literature and related disciplines with research experience in various geographic areas across the globe.

Please send chapter proposals of 500-1000 words as a Word attachment to Lise-Hélène Trouilloud (lvtrouilloud_at_csupomona.edu <mailto:lvtrouilloud_at_csupomona.edu> ) or Anjana Narayan (anarayan_at_csupomona.edu <mailto:anarayan_at_csupomona.edu> ) by March 7, 2007.

 
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Lise-Hélène Trouilloud, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of World Literature
Department of English and Foreign Languages
California State Polytechnic University, Pomona
3801 West Temple Avenue
Pomona, CA 91768
(909) 869-3979
lvtrouilloud_at_csupomona.edu
 
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Received on Sun Feb 11 2007 - 18:47:48 EST